When the Sky falls
by Ender falls on Squidlox
Summary: It really seemed like things couldn't get worse for Sky. A base fell, along with possibly dozens of recruits. He got an arrow stuck in his amulet and started feeling like he was dying. He got violently shoved into the ocean. It seemed almost impossible for his day to get worse from there. And then he turned into a squid.
1. The Sky falls over

**So, how about we try this again? I've actually already written a story like this before, but it didn't have much in the way of plot, and this is also a bit of a challenge to see if I can actually pull off writing a longer story. I've had this story buzzing in my head for maybe a month now, adding bits of storyline during every dull moment with nothing to do. I can't be sure, but I feel like this time I'm going to actually finish this story. So, enjoy!**

This shouldn't have been happening.

It _wouldn't_ have happened, if Sky hadn't gotten careless. Build a base near the ocean? Sure, why not? Make it a huge base? Sure, why not? Let recruits actually live there? Sure, why not? This. _This_ was why not.

Sky was running for his life, trying to make it out of the area before the squids completely took the place over. He had made it out of the main building safely, but the real challenge now was actually getting anywhere. Every inch of ground was covered in fighting and fleeing recruits, and everywhere a recruit wasn't, a squid was, tripping and attacking anyone they could reach. Practically wading through the masses that forced him to slow his pace, a flash of movement caught Sky's eye as a squid archer, who had somehow managed to escape a chaos and cling to the side of a building, drew back an arrow, aiming at Sky.

Sky whipped around just as the arrow was released, and time seemed to slow down as the arrow sped towards him. His amulet swung on its chain, and as it continued in its arc, the arrow hit it, piercing the gem and sticking there as cracks spiderwebbed out from it. The world returned to normal speed as Sky darted on, hardly daring to believe his good luck. Or, at least he thought it was good luck. It was certainly better than the arrow actually hitting him.

He didn't feel so great, though. When the arrow hit his amulet, he felt like he had actually been struck in the heart, followed by a feeling of intense nausea. On top of that, he just felt _weird_ , in a way he couldn't properly describe. As he ran, he tripped slightly, feeling oddly clumsy and slow, like his legs weren't working correctly. His breathing, already heavy because of all the running, felt weird too, as if there was something wrong with the air. Nevertheless, he kept running, oblivious to the shards of amethyst falling from his amulet.

He finally emerged in a somewhat open space. In front of him was the ocean, and on either side of him, he could see where he could escape. Although, his chances over there didn't look so great. A ton of squids blocked the way, in numbers so large they served as a sort of wall, and while most recruits were doing a fair job of hacking and slashing their way to freedom, every so often a recruit would trip or falter, and a wave of squids would rise and drag the unfortunate recruit down into the writhing mass. Even from this distance, Sky could practically hear screams being abruptly cut off.

Sky shuddered, taking a moment to consider his options. He stepped to the edge of the ocean, where a large wall provided a nice spot to sit with your legs dangling off the edge, thinking about life as the ocean breeze swept over you. Not that that was a good idea under these circumstances. Sky checked to see if any squids were visibly climbing the wall or lurking at the base of the wall, then gazed thoughtfully at the water below, glancing quickly over his shoulder to make sure he was relatively safe.

Maybe… maybe he could _swim_ away from the base? It (probably) wasn't as fatally stupid as it sounded. It looked like most of the squids were occupied with taking over the base and blocking recruits from escaping, so, unless there was another wave of squids coming in, it was unlikely that Sky would have to fight a squid in their own element. In addition, Sky had always been a good swimmer, and although he hadn't been swimming for a while, he shouldn't be rusty enough that he couldn't pull off his escape. Also, he felt even worse than he had while running, and he knew that he couldn't defeat a sleepy bat in his current state, much less dozens of squids. On the other hand, if there _were_ squids still in the water nearby, Sky could end up fighting anyways, and fighting a squid in the ocean was an idea that _was_ as fatally stupid as it sounded.

Unfortunately, Sky didn't get a chance to further consider his options. A group of recruits burst out from an alley, a girl who looked barely 14 surrounding the group in a magical shield that looked almost like a giant hamster ball. Focused on running, the group didn't seem to see Sky, and he was struck by their shield. As it turned out, the shield didn't just protect those inside it, it attacked those outside it. When it made contact, Sky screamed, the enchantment mixing with whatever was happening to him to create intense agony. He was shoved off the wall, smoke rising from burnt clothes and seared skin where he made contact with that stupid magical hamster ball. He hit the water with a loud crash, and he sank through the water, barely conscious.

He kept his eyes open long enough to see shards of amethyst sinking down to settle next to him, before the pain and exhaustion overwhelmed him, and everything went black.

Ross squished himself closer to the side of the room, sniffling as quietly as he could. He cautiously poked his head out the window, glancing from side to side nervously. Almost an hour had passed after the last Sky Army recruit had fled or died, and the area Ross was in seemed free of squids. Ross hoisted himself out of the window, landing not-so-softly in some bushes. The movies had made bushes seem soft as clouds, and _nothing_ could be farther from the truth. "Ow." Ross said, the lone word carrying in the empty space. Ross struggled out of the bushes, frowning at his lack of action-hero skills. He wandered off into the streets, scanning the landscape cautiously. A glint of purple shone in the corner of his eye, and he gasped, quickly turning to look at it.

He ran closer, bending down to pick up the purple object. Straightening up, he turned it over in his hands. It looked almost like part of a gem… a very familiar looking gem. Didn't Sky have a gem like this in his amulet? At this realization, Ross gasped loudly, immediately looking around to see if anyone had heard. Heart pounding, Ross turning this information over in his mind. Sky _never_ took off his amulet, not even when he slept. Ross couldn't see him taking it off for any reason, let alone destroying it. Another glint of purple caught Ross's eye, and he slowly lifted his head to see a trail of amethyst shards. Following the trail, Ross soon broke into a run. He sniffed the shard, picking up the scent in case the trail ran out. The good thing about Sky never taking off his amulet was that the scent of Sky's amulet and Sky's scent were irreversibly linked in Ross's mind, making him fairly confident that he could track Sky.

As Ross reached the open area where Sky disappeared, he slowed, looking around. He nervously eyed the small pile of shards by the water's edge. Surely Sky hadn't tried to dive into the ocean. Taking another sniff, he sighed. Scent trails didn't lie. Sky had gone into the ocean. Bracing himself, Ross leaped into the ocean.

After a second of being in the water, his legs fused together, forming a tail. With several powerful kicks, he reached the sandy bottom, where a few amethyst shards had settled. He wrinkled his nose. The place stunk of squids. Trying to block it out, Ross focused solely on Sky's scent. He picked up the trail leading out to sea, and he set off quickly. Maybe it was his focus on the amulet's scent, or maybe it was all of the worried thoughts distracting him, but Ross failed to note one critical thing.

Sky's scent had changed.


	2. Sky freaks out a lot

**Yeah, I don't really have a ton to say for this author's note. I know it's a pretty cliché kind of thing to say, but could you please review if you like this story?**

Sky woke up with his eyes still closed. He didn't really feel like opening them. Everything felt weirdly wrong in a way, and he really didn't want to find out what was making him feel like that. The last thing he remembered was shutting his eyes as he lay at the bottom of the ocean. Was he dead? He couldn't hold his breath while unconscious, and last time he checked, he couldn't breathe underwater. Being dead would certainly explain feeling weird and somehow weightless. Maybe he could open his eyes a little bit, see where exactly he had ended up.

When he did, he found himself staring into the eyes of a squid as big as he was. The squid darted backwards, startled. Sky tried to do the same, but his limbs didn't seem to work right and he ended up flailing in place. Okay, so he definitely wasn't dead. He was fairly certain that the afterlife didn't include unusually large squids.

Sky took the opportunity to see where he was. He was in some kind of jail cell, with bars just barely too close together to squeeze through, and rough stone walls with some kind of algae growing on them. While Sky was taking this in, the squid in the cell with him glided up to him and started talking. "Finally, you're awake. I was _this_ close to strangling you, because you talk a ton in your sleep. It was kinda amusing at first, but it got old quickly." Sky glared at the squid, briefly questioning why this squid wasn't even fazed by talking to the leader of the Sky Army.  
"I don't talk in my sleep."  
"Well, what would you call talking while you're sleeping? Anyways, I'm Teuthida. A bit of a redundant name, but it's not the worst name I could have. I got in here for sneaking into the royal library. I didn't even know that dust could collect underwater. And if what I heard from the guards bringing you in was true, then you fell asleep rather than participate in a major battle, which is a bit weird."

From the way Teuthida looked at Sky, it was obviously posed as a question, but Sky was too shocked to respond properly. "What do you mean, I didn't participate in the battle? I'm not even part of the Squid Army!" This seemed pretty obvious to Sky, as he was pretty clearly human, but Teuthida looked honestly surprised.

"You're absolutely sure you're not?"

"Of course I'm sure! I'm part of the Sky Army!"

If the news that Sky wasn't part of the Squid Army surprised Teuthida, than the news that he was part of the Sky Army absolutely shocked her. "So, going for the insanity plea?" She asked lightly, barely concealing the nervous quiver in her voice. Sky narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if Teuthida was actually that dumb. Judging by the parts of their conversation that had actually made sense, she seemed smarter than the average squid, but how could she not tell who Sky was?

"I can't see how this so hard to notice," Sky said angrily. "I feel like you should at least be able to see something so obvious!" Teuthida angrily rose up, forcing Sky to look up at her.

"Oh, that's real funny, coming from the squid who thinks he's human!" The words shot through Sky like an icy bolt, freezing his body and mind in place. What did she just say? She had to be tricking him, trying to mess with his head. Sky couldn't be a squid. He just couldn't be. He had been fighting squids for years, and he hated them with a burning passion. He couldn't be everything Sky Army stood against.

He couldn't be the enemy.

Sensing just how much impact her words had had on Sky, Teuthida floated back down to eye level, looking at Sky with a mixture of concern and pity. Sky glared at her as she moved steadily closer, stopping about two feet away. Sky wished that he could regain enough control over his limbs so that he could swim as far away from her as possible. "Look…" She started in a soft tone.

"No." Sky said, closing his eyes and turning away from her. He didn't want to have to look at her, to see the looks she gave him and doubt that she was lying to him. "Y-you're lying. I'm not a squid. I can't be a squid." Sky said, voice sounding oddly choked.

"I just-"

"I'M NOT A SQUID."

Teuthida sighed. "There's a mirror on the wall to your right." Sky hesitated for a moment, then opened his eyes, and slowly turned towards the mirror.

He saw a squid staring back at him, eyes wide with horror. Sky gasped. This couldn't be happening to him. It had to be some kind of crazy nightmare, or something. He whirled around, grabbing Teuthida, who let out a small cry of surprise. "Pinch me," Sky said, his deathly calm tone barely concealing his mounting terror.

Teuthida gave him a perplexed look. "…What's pinching?" She asked, sounding honestly curious. Sky opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again when he realized the pointlessness of explaining pinching to somebody without opposable thumbs, or fingers at all.

"Then just… slap me or something." Sky said. "Whatever you'd do to wake somebody up from a bad dream." Teuthida hesitantly lifted a tentacle, pausing before slapping Sky at blinding speed with a surprising amount of force. With a cry of pain, Sky let go of Teuthida, screwing his eyes shut and raising a tentacle to his face. "Sorry!" Teuthida exclaimed, worried that she had actually injured him.

Sky opened his eyes, still daring to hope he would see his bedroom when his eyes opened fully. No, none of this was a dream. The stinging mark on his face was certainly real enough. No matter how nightmarish everything was, it was all true. The squids had succeeded, he had been captured, he had become a squid somehow, and he was (he realized with a jolt of horror) probably never going to see his friends again.

Teuthida, seeing how upset Sky was, put a tentacle around him in an awkward half-hug, barely touching him, as if craziness was contagious. "Hey, um… you'll be fine." Teuthida said, in a way that was even more awkward than the hug. Sky glanced at her, obviously skeptical. Teuthida rubbed the back of her head with a tentacle, then wordlessly darted away to a corner, where she hid herself in a mass of seaweed floating there.

Sky floated in the same spot for hours, unable to stop thinking about everything that had happened, but eventually he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	3. Ross ex machina

Sky was woken by a gentle, consistent tapping on the cell wall. He looked at the corner where Teuthida was hiding, wondering if she was making the sound, but she swam out, looking just as confused as Sky felt. She drifted up to him, voicing what they were both thinking. "What in Minecraftia is making that noise?" Sky shrugged. Or, at least, he tried to. He still wasn't sure how a squid body could work with the human body language he was used to, but he hoped that his point got across.

Suddenly, the tapping noise stopped. Sky and Teuthida both looked warily at the back wall, where the noise had come from. The tense silence continued for a few moments, and then the wall _broke_ , something large and gray slamming into it. Said large grey figure floated there for a few moments, rubbing his arm tenderly where he had driven it into the wall.

It took Sky a moment, given his heavily altered perception, but he finally realized that he knew who had broken the cell. "Ross!" He cried, darting towards Ross and hugging him, overwhelmed with joy and relief. Ross only stared down at Sky for a moment, clearly confused as to why there was a squid hugging him. Ross sniffed silently, realization dawning in his eyes as he recognized the scent he had been tracking for miles. "S-Sky?" He said. Sky looked up at Ross's face, nodding silently. "How did this happen?" Ross cried out.

Sky shrugged, uncomfortable with how little he knew about his situation. "I'm not sure, actually. I just woke up here as a squid, and I didn't even notice I had been turned into a squid until Teuthida told me." 

"Who's Teuthida?" Ross asked. "Oh, she's a squid who was in this cell with me. In fact, she's right over there…" Sky answered, trailing off as he realized Teuthida was missing. After a moment, he noticed her hiding between two pieces of rubble from the wall, watching the whole exchange. As Sky got closer, flailing his tentacles until he figured out how to move gracefully enough to actually get anywhere, he noticed that Teuthida was breathing heavily. Sky felt fairly certain it was because she was mad about how weird the situation had gotten, but as he floated down to the mouth of the makeshift cage, Teuthida drew back sharply, and Sky couldn't help but notice a flash of fear in her eyes.

So, of course, Sky used his immense skills of subtlety and sensitivity to find out why she was so terrified. "Why are you scared?" He asked. Teuthida glared at him, and then erupted out of the rubble with such force and rage that Sky staggered back.

"Why am I scared! I have two major reasons to be scared, and they're both right in front of me! First of all, if the narwhal is to be believed, than not only are you actually a human, you are _Skydoesminecraft_. Leader of the Sky Army! Enemy of squids! You're kinda terrifying! And second of all," She continued before Sky could protest at his description of "kinda terrifying." "That is a _narwhal_ right over there! Do you know what narwhals eat? DO YOU SKY? THEY EAT SQUIDS, THAT'S WHAT THEY EAT."

Ross frowned. "I don't eat squids! Well… not very often anyways. There was that one time, but they were already long dead." Teuthida didn't look terribly comforted by this information. Suddenly, a loud clatter echoed down the hallway. Everybody froze at the sound, unsure of what to do. "That sounds like guards coming," Teuthida said. "We have to get out before they see what happened over here."

Even as she finished speaking, Teuthida grabbing on of Sky's tentacles and swam impressively quickly out of the cell and flattened herself to the outside of the wall. Ross followed, being actually stealthy for once. A second later, they all heard shouting as the guards saw the massive hole, followed by more clattering armor, sounding like the guards were moving at a more frantic speed.

Teuthida sighed as soon as the clattering died away. She looked at Sky. "If you're going to leave, I think I'd better come with you, at least for a while. They'll all forget about this soon, but right now, it's better for them all to believe that I broke out and you escaped too, rather than thinking that I just broke you out."

Sky smiled. "Sure, you can come with us!" He didn't really like the idea of leaving her to explain to the squids why, exactly, the cell had been absolutely destroyed, or how Sky had escaped, although apparently none of the squids had recognized him. "So, where are we going?" He asked Ross.

Ross nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I actually didn't think that far ahead. The plan was pretty much just to find you, save you, and just go from there." Ross thought for a moment. "I think we should try to find a Sky Army base? I want to see if anything major has happened while we've been gone. Maybe we could find all of our friends there! Sky, maybe somebody knows how to make you human again!" Ross sounded a bit overly optimistic, and it wasn't likely that that would happen, but Sky couldn't help but start to feel hopeful. He hated every moment that he had to spend as a squid, and the idea that his problem could be solved so quickly and easily was almost too good to be true.

In fact, it probably _was_ too good to be true. But if there was even the slightest chance of success, he had to try. He didn't even want to think about the possibility of never being human again.


	4. Wait what

**Right before I uploaded the third chapter, I was hit by some motivation issues and some larger priorities. Up until this point, I was writing ahead a lot, so I could update every other day, but I've caught up now. So, after this, updates are probably going to be a bit farther apart.**

From the moment it started, the adventure started to go wrong. First of all, Sky realized that he still didn't know how to swim as a squid. Every time he had tried, he thought that he had it, but then he reverted back to strokes that would have let a human travel just fine, but couldn't get him anywhere as a squid. Ross had already started swimming away, but Teuthida had hung back for a little while. "Teuthida? I have a bit of a stupid question to ask you," Sky said.

"It's probably not as stupid as you think." Teuthida said.

"How do I swim?"

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment until Teuthida answered. "Wow. That actually was a stupid question. That's absolutely ridiculous. Don't tell me you can't swim. Not knowing how to swim is like not knowing how to breathe. Besides, weren't you swimming just a few minutes ago? Ross burst through that wall, and you swam right up to him, perfectly naturally and easily." Sky blinked in surprise. He hadn't thought about that. Come to think of it, it hadn't been thinking about it when he was doing it either. He told Teuthida about this, and she nodded slowly. "That could be why you're having trouble swimming," She said. "The more you think about doing it, the more awkward and difficult it gets."

That sounded pretty accurate, but it wasn't helping Sky at all. As it turned out, trying not to think about swimming while Sky was swimming was pretty difficult. In the end, they decided it would be best if Sky just held on to Ross, so that they wouldn't have to slow down for him. Sky glared halfheartedly at Teuthida, who had swum up to Ross and was explaining the situation. As Sky watched, he saw that both of them were trying to keep from laughing. Whatever. Sky couldn't really blame them for finding this funny.

Ross swam back, and Sky grabbed hold of his hand. They swam on silently and awkwardly. The second problem came when they all realized they had no idea if they could find anyone from the Sky Army. The nearest base to the ocean that Sky knew of was the base that had just been taken over by the squids, and that was the last place he wanted to go. They ended up travelling along the coastline, searching for a river that led inland.

Sky stared absently at the sandy bed below them, the water so shallow that he could touch the sand and still hold on to Ross. Ross had turned out to have the most stamina of them all, and even Teuthida had grown exhausted, despite being the most experienced swimmer, and was now clinging to Ross's horn, nearly asleep. Ross found the mouth of a river and turned inland.

A few minutes into the river, the water started to get weird. It slid through Sky's gills oddly, lacking some distinctive feeling to it that he hadn't noticed until it was gone. It was enough to wake up Teuthida, who muttered "Fresh water." with obvious disdain in her voice. Then she promptly fell back asleep. Well. That would explain it. Ross started to rise towards the surface, taking Sky and Teuthida with him. When Ross's head poked up above the water, the sudden removal from water woke up Teuthida. However mockingly graceful she was in water, she was hardly impressive out of it. She briefly scrabbled for a better grip on Ross's horn before slipping back into the water. She bobbed to the surface a moment later, the dawn light illuminating the indignant expression on her face. _Wait a second,_ Sky thought. _Has this journey been entirely at night?_ Now that he thought about it, Sky remembered how Ross had been squinting while he swam, as if he was trying to make out something hard to see. But Sky had seen everything just fine, and Teuthida hadn't seemed to have any problems with the light level. Did this mean squids could see in the dark? Sky had to admit, that was a pretty useful ability.

Ross cried out in joy. "I see something!" He pointed towards the horizon, and Sky looked to where he was pointing. He could make out a building, located a safe distance away from the water. Ross hauled himself ashore, tail flopping uselessly for a second before it separated back into legs. Ross stood up, glancing back at Sky. "I'll be back in just a minute!" With that he set off running towards the base.

Sky and Teuthida were left floating awkwardly next to each other. "So… what's life like for you?" Sky asked, desperate to break the silence. "Anybody you left to come here? Friends, crushes, family?" Teuthida shrugged evasively.

"For the most part, I tried to avoid talking to anyone, and I never really knew my family all that well. So, really, nobody important to me back there. Although, there was this one squid I knew who I liked. Her name was Seafoam. She was really great. Whenever I got excited about something, she listened to what I was saying. Whenever I felt overwhelmed by crowded places, she would help me find somewhere quiet. Whenever I was sad, she knew how to cheer me up." Teuthida had started smiling while talking about Seafoam, but she now she frowned sadly. "She was the best squid I ever knew."

"Wait… what do mean _was?_ " Sky asked.

"She… she died."

"How?" Sky asked. In response, Teuthida stared in the direction where Ross had gone. "Oh…" Sky said, trailing off. There were two things that Teuthida could mean by that, and neither of them were good. "I'm so sorry." He said, feeling like the words didn't properly express how he felt about this.

"Mhmm." Teuthida replied. They floated there silently for about a minute, the fresh water stinging their gills. "I'm going to find something to eat," Teuthida muttered, diving beneath the surface of the water. Sky was left alone, stuck floating in the same spot. Well, maybe he could use the time to practice swimming.

Swimming practice didn't go well. Sky still ended up flailing in place, struggling to find the right way to move his tentacles to propel himself forward. Sky frowned. Fine then. He didn't even really want to swim well. He felt awkward and out of place in his new body, but the last thing he wanted to do was get comfortable with it, because that was practically admitting he was in this for the long haul.

He paced in the water, frustrated with all that had been thrown at him in the last day. _Wait,_ he thought. _If I'm pacing, then I'm moving, then I'm_ swimming _!_ Energized by this realization, he tried to keep doing what he was doing. Sure, he was a little less graceful then he would have liked to be, but he was moving, and that was certainly progress.

Ross appeared back into view, bringing with him a recruit. Sky recognized this recruit as the kid who had knocked him into the ocean with their shield/ giant magical hamster ball. "She can help!" Ross said. "Ophelia can see any enchantment or spell, and I bet she can find out exactly how this happened!" Ophelia smiled awkwardly, and Sky swam up so that Ophelia could see whatever spell he had been put under.

That was when the third problem happened. Ophelia inhaled sharply when she saw Sky, and turned to Ross. "Ross, are you certain that Sky never takes his amulet off?" Ross nodded. "Yeah. A hundred percent certain. Why do you ask?" Sky had heard some pretty terrifying things before. Those flying squids from that one mod, the roar of an enraged dragon, and, on one memorable occasion, the collective hiss of 24 charged creepers. But nothing had ever terrified him as much as what Ophelia said next.

"He's not under a spell. His amulet was the only thing keeping him human."


	5. Max is so salty it becomes a plot device

**I actually had this split up into two chapters before I realized the the first one would be far too short, so y'all are getting the longest chapter of this story I have written. Also, it was too long, but the original title for this chapter was this.**

 **If you're human and you know it clap your hands! *dead silence***

In the shocked silence that followed, Ophelia nervously tapped her foot. "Goodbye," She said suddenly as she ran back to the base, almost rivaling Teuthida in awkward exits. Sky hardly even noticed, struggling to keep calm. His amulet had been the only thing keeping him human? No, that couldn't be right. If Ophelia was right, that would mean that he had been a squid all along, and he definitely would have remembered if he was ever a squid before.

But now that he thought about it, one particular memory came to mind. He had woken up washed ashore on an abandoned beach, half-drowned and disoriented, his amulet hanging heavily around his neck. Sky had always tried not to think about the odd memory. But now that he did, he realized that every memory before that one had an odd, fuzzy quality about it that didn't seem real. Most likely because, Sky realized, they _weren't_ real.

Even thinking that made Sky feel disgusted. It was horrible to know that everything he thought he knew about himself was all a disguise. If he had the ability to turn back time and never hear what Ophelia said, he would have done it in a heartbeat. Another thought struck him. Could he still be in the Sky Army, even if he was a squid? _Of course I can stay in the Sky Army,_ Sky reassured himself. _It's not like I've changed at all. Even if I'm not who I thought I was, I'm still the same where it counts, and they'll all see that, right?_ Unfortunately, Sky wasn't really sure about that. Even Ross, probably the most trusting and loyal person Sky knew, was looking at Sky as if he hardly recognized him.

Teuthida chose that exact moment to return. Whatever her actual motives for leaving, getting food was probably actually one of them. She was carrying loads of fish, holding so many of them it was a wonder she could still swim. "I'm back!" She said cheerfully, voice slightly muffled by a fish in her mouth. Looking at her distraught companions, she swallowed a mouthful of fish. "Did I miss something important?"

They had all decided to return to open sea and eat before explaining everything to Teuthida. They found a huge, smooth rock that they could rest on. As it turned out, even eating was different for Sky now. His teeth were now extremely sharp and pointed. Teeth like those were good for impaling and holding onto fish, but they made chewing nearly impossible. Sky ended up having to tear off chunks of fish with his tentacles and then swallow those chunks whole. As he ate, he tried to explain to Teuthida what had happened while she was gone.

When he had finished, Teuthida looked pretty shocked. "Wow," She said, "That's certainly something." Ross was looking absolutely miserable, and he muttered "It's not even the worse news that I've heard today." That caught Sky's attention. He looked at Ross, wondering what could possibly be worse than Sky finding out that he was a squid all along.

"I heard that the squids are getting stronger. More bases near water have been taken. They think that the squids can't attack much farther inland, but the Sky Army can't get organized enough to form a counterattack. A lot of important people have disappeared, Sky, not just you, and everybody is terrified. Deadlox is missing, Barney has vanished, and," Ross swallowed and blinked back tears, "Max was captured by the squids, and nobody saw him again after that."

Sky was shocked. How could so much have happened in so short of a time? In just a day, almost all hope for the Sky Army had been lost. And maybe the worst part about it was the Sky had no idea what to do about any of it. He had never felt so completely useless in his life. "What do we do now?" Sky wondered out loud.

"Maybe we could try to find everyone who's missing?" Ross answered. Teuthida nodded, adding in "If morale is low because people went missing, it should help to bring morale back up if they return alive and well." Sky smiled, grateful for a way to seem in charge and in control again.

"Then that's what we'll do. We'll get everyone missing back to the Sky Army!"

At that time, Max was a little bit of a mad Max, but mostly a really sad Max. He paced on the slightly rocking floor of the boat he was on, leaving a growing line of salt in his path. This was quite possibly one of the worst times in his life, even when compared to when salt became plentiful. He shuddered in fear from the memory, but allowed his mind to slip back into that time anyways. He remembered it as sharply as if it were yesterday, his power fading away into nearly nothing, his desperation and despair increasing with his mortality, until he was alone, immortal, but sick, his mind on an endless repeating track of _This can't happen. This can't happen. This can't happen._

Yep. That was pretty high on his top ten list of horrible experiences. After that, his name and legends had become so ridiculously warped that he was practically a living target for every adventurous and brave youth in the entire world. As a result, he ended up disguising himself as a mortal. It was ridiculously easy, really. A quick spell to quickly cover the dead giveaway he was famous for, and to prevent himself from constantly producing salt, which he was less famous for. He gave himself another name, and got himself some friends. And even that had ended in disaster. When he had found out that Ross was in the base attacked by the squids, he quickly grabbed a recruit to go with him and got to the base as quickly as he could.

That was a _massive_ mistake on his part. They were ambushed by a few squids, and while the recruit got away, Max was captured. They dragged him underwater, and one of them threw something at him. Max had barely enough time to recognize it as a device that can block magic and remove spells before it hit him. Immediately, salt started pouring from Max's skin, fueled by his rage. He turned it on his attackers, aiming to clog up their gills. To their credit, the squids didn't stop attacking until they had tied him up, and then they dragged him away, carefully scraping the salt out of each other's gills, and trying to avoid the water right behind them, where Max's rage was making him dangerously close to creating a new Dead Sea.

As Max calmed down slightly, he felt almost bad about trying to suffocate the squids with salt. With a mental shrug (he was too tightly bound for an actual shrug) he decided that the squids would probably be okay, assuming they got medical attention when they got to wherever they were taking him.

When they finally stopped, they were at the side of an underwater ravine, where the guards were instructed to wait there with Max until somebody would bring him to a boat. While they were waiting, Max noticed that his guards looked rather uncomfortable. With a jolt of horror, Max realized just how much salt he had been pouring into their gills. A good amount of the water that got into their gills was probably just barely liquid enough to get into the squid.

Soon after Max realized that, the guard's discomfort got more severe, and then they were begging for water, although they were surrounded by it, and they were so desperate and confused that Max shut his eyes and tried his hardest not to listen. When he opened his eyes again, the squids were all dead. Dehydration was an awful way to die.

When the new guards came to get Max, they barely even glanced at the corpses. They simply grabbed Max and started swimming towards the surface. These guards were more impressive, if impressive was a word that could ever be used to describe a squid. They had armor, what resembled a large helmet covering most of their bodies and overlapping plates of strapped-on armor on their tentacles, which looked like an actually rather smart way of letting them move fairly unrestricted. They carried tridents larger than they were, the prongs looking extremely sharp in a way that made Max extremely nervous.

They reached the bottom of a boat. One guard threw open a trapdoor, and another quickly untied Max and shoved him in forcefully. Max landed roughly on the floor of the boat, the trapdoor slamming shut loudly. Rubbing his head where he hit it on the floor, Max sat up and scanned the area, eyes locking onto a set of stairs alongside a wall, presumably leading to the higher floors of the boat. Cautiously, he stood up and walked over to the stairs, placing his hand gently on the handrail.

Before he could change he mind, he ran up the stairs, flinging open the door at the top. Max stepped forward, closing the door behind him far more gently than how he had opened it. It was… actually pretty nice. Sunlight streamed through a glass ceiling, the deck he was on being a rather roomy space with a corridor leading off to the side that Max assumed led to a bedroom and bathroom. The open space felt comfortable and relaxed. Max stepped towards a door that led to the open deck, but the door was locked. Looking more closely, Max realized it was locked not only with an actual lock, but with several enchantments that suggested whoever tried to unlock it was in for a nasty surprise. Max sighed. Alright, he was definitely imprisoned. But, at least he got a comfortable prison with a glass ceiling.

While he was there, he might as well see if his old appearance was restored with his powers. He didn't have to go far before he found a mirror. Yes, his appearance had returned, all right! The one nice thing about how inaccurate his legends had gotten was that everybody thought that he looked far different than he actually did, so when he disguised himself as mortal, he didn't have to change much.

The only difference was that when he stared in the mirror, glowing white eyes stared back at him.


	6. Sorry

**GUESS WHO'S BACK, YA'LL! So, I'd like to apologize for a few things before this chapter gets started.**

 **1\. Sorry for making ya'll wait so long. My laziness annoys me too.**

 **2\. This is a really unoriginal idea. Not the idea behind this whole story, that's not an idea a lot of people have had, but you'll know what I'm talking about by the end of this chapter. You can't go two feet in this fandom without encountering this.**

 **3\. There's transformation horror in this chapter. It's not really, really gory, but if you're super squeamish you might want to sit that part out.**

It was a tough decision, but Ross, Sky and Teuthida eventually agreed that they should search for Ty first. As they all swam, Ross in the lead, Sky realized that they didn't seem to be headed towards Ty's house. When he questioned Ross about this, Ross responded, "Well, since Ty's house is so far inland, we've got to stop at my house so that I can get something for you and Teuthida!"

When they got to Ross's house, Ross immediately left, running at top speed. Sky and Teuthida both felt pretty worried about what kind of solution Ross would come up with so that they could breathe while looking for Ty. "Oh my Notch," Teuthida muttered as Ross reappeared. "He _can't_ be serious..." Ross was carrying two fishbowls, one tucked under each arm. Ross cam up and shoved the fishbowls underwater. "So you just swim in, and we can go!" Ross said, apparently pleased with his solution. Sky looked apprehensively at the fishbowl. Sky didn't really like the idea of Ross having to carry him everywhere, and the fishbowl itself looked like Sky would barely fit into it.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Sky asked, with Teuthida murmuring an agreement next to him. Ross scowled. "Do you have a better one?" Ross asked.

An hour later, Sky squirmed in discomfort as Ross walked up to Ty's house. Ross gently opened the door, which had been left unlocked. Sky stopped squirming, briefly forgetting about how cramped the bowl was as he looked around. Ty's house was dark and empty, giving it a foreboding air that would have sent chills down Sky's spine if he still had one. Ross hesitated for a moment, then continued, searching for something that he could track Ty with. They went up to Ty's room, where Ross gently set Sky and Teuthida on the floor before he took a look around.

Ty's room was pretty messy, with piles of personal belongings heaped onto the floor, but what immediately caught Ross's attention was a pair of headphones lying on Ty's bedside table. Ross turned it over in his hands, before smelling it, trying to learn what Ty smelled like as fast as he could. Turning back, Ross scooped up the fishbowls and bolted out, relieved to finally leave the abandoned house.

Ross had left the headphones behind, needing both hands to safely hold Sky and Teuthida. Unfortunately, this meant that he had to run, because he had nothing to remind him of what Ty smelled like if he ever forgot. The water in Sky's fishbowl sloshed dangerously as Ross ran, and Sky was clinging to the side to prevent himself from being flung from side to side. From what Sky could see, Teuthida had tried the same strategy, but she had been more easily shaken off the side of the bowl, and had seemed to accept her fate.

Ross was forced to slow down slightly as the path led him underground. He was walking down rough stone stairs carved out with a pickaxe, and he risked tripping if he went too fast here. Before they knew it, they were standing in the portal room of a stronghold. The portal had already been activated, a thin sheet of space spread across the frame, and they all had a pretty good idea of who had opened it. "What the Nether is _that_?" Teuthida asked breathlessly, and Sky realized with a start that Teuthida, having lived in the ocean her whole life, had never seen an End portal. More importantly, living in the most deadly element to Endermen meant that she had never seen one, or learned how dangerous they were.

Sky glanced up at Ross. The Endermen couldn't get to Sky or Teuthida without getting injured, but it would take Ross a few seconds to put down Sky and Teuthida and draw a weapon, moments that Ross couldn't afford. "We're going to a dimension called the End," Sky started. "There are mobs there called Endermen, which are really tall and covered in black scales. They have purple eyes, but you shouldn't see their eyes, because if you look an Enderman in the eye, it will try to kill us all, and it's likely to succeed."

"So, no worries then." Teuthida said, chuckling nervously, and looked down at the portal with slightly less excitement than before. Ross stepped up to the portal, sighing. "Well, let's just find Ty and get this over with." Ross said. Without further ado, he leaped into the portal, and they all vanished, leaving a faint ripple across the portal's surface.

Honestly, Sky had forgotten just how awful travelling with portals was. It felt like a cross between a free fall and being sharply tugged away at the same time, leaving Sky's stomach back in the Overworld. The experience wasn't much improved by the fact that everybody was screaming in terror. Then suddenly, it was over, and Ross stumbled out of the fabric of space, coming dangerously close to letting the fishbowls spill over. When everybody's heartbeat and breathing returned to normal, they all noticed that a bridge from the obsidian platform to the main island had already been built.

When Ross reached the island, Sky noticed that the portal back to the Overworld had already been spawned. The dragon egg was untouched, but it seemed odd, grey instead of black speckled with purple. So, this meant that yes, Ty had killed the dragon, but for some reason he hadn't gone back to the Overworld. They wandered the island for a while, calling for Ty as loudly as they could.

Eventually, Ross had to sit down and rest. He slumped against the side of an obsidian pillar, placing the fishbowls on either side of him. Relaxing for a moment, Sky made probably the dumbest mistake he had made in a long time. He looked up. As was his luck, he happened to look straight into an Enderman's eyes. The Enderman started shaking and making a screeching noise, which caused Ross and Teuthida to instinctively look up for the danger. As a result, they aggravated even more Endermen, which teleported to them. Screaming, they all tried to shield themselves the best they could, before a winged humanoid swooped down and landed facing them, spreading its wings to make a shield and twisting its head around to snarl and hiss at the Endermen.

Shocked, Sky started to take in the features of his savior. He realized, first of all, the t-shirt that the creature wore. V-necked and white, that shirt was almost as immediately recognizable as Ty's headphones. In fact, if Sky ignored the wings, tail, horns, and claws, their mysterious rescuer looked almost like… "Ty!?" Sky cried out in shock. Finally, the creature turned his head to look at them. He _was_ Ty. The green glow of his headphones had shifted to purple, and those rusty red eyes had turned catlike and purple, but he hadn't changed so much that he was unrecognizable.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Sky, and when Ty looked at Sky in surprise, there was no recognition in his eyes. Ty turned to Ross with a raised eyebrow, obviously expecting an explanation. Before Ross could explain, Ty winced and hissed in pain. Whatever Ty had done to keep the Endermen away was wearing off, and they were attacking him to get to everyone he was shielding. "Okay, I don't know what you're doing here, but I do know the only way you're getting out of here." Ty pointed in the direction of the exit portal. "As soon as I fold my wings, run for the portal. I'll be fine, trust me."

"But we came all this way to find you!" Ross said. "We're not leaving without you!" Ty sighed, wings drooping slightly before he brought them back up to keep the shield up.

"I can't leave this place," Ty said. "Don't you think I would have left already if I could? Every time I try to get through the portal, something just pushes me back out. I'm trapped." Well. That certainly wasn't good. Sky saw Ross perk up, as if he had gotten an idea. That was almost as worrying as Ty being stuck in the End.

Before Sky could react, Ross picked up his fishbowl and shoved Sky into Ty's hands/talons quickly, surprising both Ty and Sky. "Here, take the squid!"

Ty fumbled dangerously as he tried to get a better grip on the smooth fishbowl. "Why am I taking the squid?"

Ross picked up Teuthida's fishbowl and stood up. "Because the squid is Sky."

Ty took a moment to process this information. "That… that raises more questions than it answers." Ross shifted so that he could carry Teuthida's fishbowl tucked under one arm.

"I'll explain later. Right now, just grab my hand and run." Ty did so, and he stood tensely for a moment before he folded his wings. Immediately, the Endermen started going after them, and Ty and Ross started running. Ross turned, headed for the exit portal. Suddenly, an Enderman teleported directly in front of them, and Ross dodged, barely missing the hostile mob. Soon, Ross had led them to the exit portal, where he jumped in with no hesitation. Held close to Ty, Sky felt the portal resist, trying to prevent Ty from passing through, but Ty kept his grip on Ross's hand tight, and the portal have way.

In a flash, the group tumbled out into the Overworld. After the disorientation caused by portal travel passed, Sky realized that they had come out onto Ross's bed, which made sense since Ross was the first to go through the portal. Briefly, Sky wondered what would have happened if he had gone through the portal first. Did he still have a spawn point? Could he even respawn like a player? Sky knew that humans usually respawned very quickly after their deaths, unless they died of old age and sickness, in which case they wouldn't respawn at all. But mobs had a lot more variation and risk in respawning. Rarely, a mob would be able to respawn easily like a human, but usually it would take a matter of days, weeks, even years. Sometimes never.

Sky shivered. He decided he was better off never finding out the answer to the question. He turned his attention back to Ty, who had hunched up at the foot of Ross's bed, wings wrapped around him and tail carefully tucked around his feet. The air was thick with tension and unasked, unanswered questions. "So, how did this happen?" Ross asked, looking at Ty curiously. Ty shifted his wings, tucking them against his back, and began to tell his story.

(We're telling this part via FLASHBACK. Also, this is where the transformation scene I warned about earlier is, so be careful!)

The air filled with crackling as the dragon met its end, purple light beaming from the chest of the rising beast. As its body dissolved into the sparks and light, small green dots fell to the ground. Ty raced around these, absorbing the dots until every cell in his body tingled with magical energy.

When the base had fallen, he had sought out the end, knowing that he'd need enchanted weapons, and that defeating the dragon would give him the necessary EXP. Defeating the dragon was actually far easier than he had expected. Aside from a sore arm from shooting arrows, and a nasty cut on his right hand from when he'd had to dive away from the swooping dragon, Ty had won mostly unscathed.

As he was preparing to leave, the dragon's egg caught his eye. A small smile crept across his face. Surely, he had enough time to grab the trophy? Lightly, he maneuvered his way up to the egg. For a few seconds, he sat on the egg, wondering how to get it back home. As he did, his hand rested on the side of the egg. Suddenly, Ty felt a light sting on his hand. Instinctively, he tried to jerk his hand away, but it was stuck fast to the egg.

Alarmed now, he jumped off the egg. He found himself dangling over the portal, held in place by his hand on the egg. He could see the egg starting to turn grey and lifeless, and he struggled to pull away, forgetting about wanting the egg.

Suddenly, the pull stopped, and Ty started to fall. When he hit the portal, it bounced him off and away, and he turned head over heels in the air and landed painfully on the end stone. Concerned, he tried to shake off the pain and look at his recently freed hand. Part of his blood had turned purple, the same shade as the enderdragon's eyes, and the blood touching this purple blood was turning purple too. Ty frantically tried to clean off the blood, but the damage had been done. He could almost feel the taint marching through his veins, racing towards his heart.

His hand started to sting badly, and he clutched it. To his horror, the skin around the wound had turned into rough black scales, and the scales were starting to cover his whole hand, itching where they grew. The scales crept all the way up his forearm, stopping just before his elbows. He felt a growing pressure behind his fingernails. Suddenly, his fingers seemed to explode, tearing off his fingernails as sharp talons grew in their place. Ty screamed in both surprise and pain, but he hardly had time to gawk at his transformed arm before a splitting headache caused him to bring his hands to his head with a worryingly inhuman hiss.

As he gently felt around to see what was causing the pain, Ty realized that there were small bumps growing out of head, lengthening and hardening as he touched them. When they had grown to about the length of his hand, curving up at the tips, Ty realized that they were horns. _Oh Notch,_ he thought. _Am I turning into a dragon?_ His back hurt, and when Ty reached back carefully, he noticed two distinct lumps that sang with pain whenever he brushed a finger over them.

Ty also noticed that his left hand had started to transform, but he couldn't really think about that before blinding pain erupted at the base of his spine. Gritting teeth that certainly weren't that sharp a few minutes ago, Ty turned to see a skeletal tail stretched out limply behind him. As he watched, flesh and muscle started to wrap itself around his tail, bringing plenty of nerve cells to the tail, as if Ty wasn't in enough pain already. He gladly would have kept the tail numb for much longer. Glossy scales coated the tail, and a sharp row of spikes started to grow, starting at the tip of Ty's tail.

To Ty's alarm, the spikes didn't stop when they reached the base of his tail, running right up through the growing lumps on his back and stopping just low enough so that Ty could comfortably lean his head back. The lumps had grown unbearably large, and they pressed against the inside of his back so hard that Ty thought his back would explode.

He was almost right. The lumps burst open in a way that seemed very explosion-like, flinging blood everywhere as wings unfolded dramatically. Ty lay on his front, numb with shock. His wings lay limply on either side of him, and he passed out, the pain slipping away.

When he woke up, he stumbled to his feet, almost falling over again thanks to the weight of his wings and tail. He walked slowly towards to portal, and accidentally bumped into a enderman. Ty looked up, freezing in fear with his wings partially open. Two sets of purple eyes locked. To Ty's surprise, the enderman didn't attack. Eventually, it wandered away, and Ty could move again.

With a little more caution, Ty ran to the portal. He tried to step into it, but his foot bounced right off, making Ty nearly lose his balance. He knelt down curiously, poking the portal with a claw. Sure enough, there seemed to some kind of force field around the portal, keeping Ty from entering. Ty straightened up, reality hitting him like a brick. He was trapped in the end.

After getting over his initial panic, he started to get bored. There simply wasn't much to do in the end. Fly around, try and startle the endermen, stare at the outer islands… the list was far too short. It was when he was lying on the top of a obsidian tower, wondering how his friends were doing, that he heard someone calling his name.

Ty leaned over the edge, curious as to who could be looking for him. Was that… Ross? Ty leaned forward farther, squinting. Was he carrying fishbowls? Why would he do that? Confused, Ty hardly noticed the cry of an enraged enderman. Bristling and terrified, Ty swooped down from the tower. He thought he knew why the endermen were angry, and they were going to attack Ty's friend over his dead body.

(And… flashback over!)

"And you know the rest." Ty said, having left out the details of the transformation itself. "So, care to explain why Sky's a squid?"


	7. I'm not even sure who was right

**Okay, so part of the reason I have an (long) author's note for this chapter is because I wanted to write an "alternate" chapter, where Sky is awake during his transformation, with all the transformation horror and angst implied. Now, remember when I said that I had tried a story like this before? It's not the first time. This Squid!Sky thing has been an obsession of mine for** ** _years_** **. So, of course, I had an old example written around a year ago ready for me to base the transformation of off.**

 **The problem is, the story was** ** _good_** **. The transformation, the realization, the way I blended my knowledge of real life squids perfectly with the exciting fiction stuff… it was all amazing. When I look back on chapters from this story, I cringe, but I was absolutely enthralled with my old work. It was something that I could read and like. I'm feeling proud of myself, of course, but I'm also really irritated. Like… how did my idiotic preteen self have such skill? Why has this skill abandoned me now? Am I too critical of my current work?**

 **Anyways, I don't know where I was going with this. I just wanted everyone to know that I used to be better at writing.**

After everything had been explained to Ty, everybody recognized one priority. The fishbowls had to go. Having Sky and Teuthida stay in the fishbowls was clearly dangerous for not only them, but whoever carried them. So now, the question was how to let Sky and Teuthida move (and breathe) without depending entirely on Ross or Ty to carry them around.

Ross proposed that they simply put wheels on the fishbowls. As Sky struggled to find a way to shoot that idea down without upsetting the cheerful narwhal, and Teuthida just stared blankly at Ross, Ty said that he could use magic instead. That was a _much_ better solution.

Now, Sky was moving easily and under his own power for probably the first time since his transformation, zipping around the room in a floating bubble of salt water. Teuthida had not immediately taken to this new method of transportation, and was clinging to Ross's head, looking almost like a scared cat.

As soon as they could coax Teuthida off Ross's head, they were off to Barney's house to find something of his to track him. It took a lot longer than the trip to Ty's house. In fact, they had to stop for the night, everybody taking turns on watch except for Ty, who was using his wings as warm, leathery blankets for everybody else. The only upside to the long trek was that Teuthida and Sky had time to get used to moving with the bubbles.

As soon as they got there, they encountered a problem. Barney didn't have a ton of stuff, being a dinosaur and all. After everybody searched every inch of his house for something useful, they came up with a few buckets that smelled more of goat's milk than Barney, and…

"Oh, ewwwww." Ross said, staring at the eyepatch that Ty threw down on the pile of buckets. Teuthida came forward to look at the eyepatch, muttered "Bleh." and floated backwards a foot or two. Sky really couldn't blame her for that disgusted reaction. Like every eyepatch that Barney owned, the inside and edges were caked with dried blood, and Sky considered himself lucky that his saltwater bubble let him escape the smell.

"Well," Ross said, clearly not working forward to the task, " I guess I'll just sniff this, and we can go…" Ross trailed off when Ty grabbed his wrist, careful not to dig his claws into Ross's skin.

"I'll do it," Ty said, and things probably would have been fine if he left it at that, but he added "My sense of smell is better than yours anyway." Ross jerked his wrist away, glaring at Ty with anger in his eyes.

"Seriously? You're not even close." Ross snarled, clutching the eyepatch tighter. Ty rolled his eyes, looking merely annoyed, but Sky could see his irritation in the way he lashed his tail dangerously. Sky watched them, amused that this was a big deal to them, but worried that they might start to really fight.

Suddenly, Teuthida flew between them in a blue blur, snatching the eyepatch out of Ross's hand and settling out of reach. "Here, I'll smell it and get this over with," She snapped. She sniffed the eyepatch, then tossed it back, saying "Here, it's all yours."

Ty caught it, then growled with irritation when he smelled it. "I can't smell anything other than salt water, thanks to you!" He said, glaring at Teuthida. Ross stepped in, adding "And considering that your sense of smell is most likely worse than either mine of Ty's, you might have just ruined out only chance at finding Barney!"

Teuthida flinched back, bristling with anger. "You should know that squids have _far_ better senses of smell than anything else in the ocean, including narwhals!" Ross snorted, looking amused.

"You don't really think that's possible, do you? Your sense of smell is like Ty's at best." Ross taunted, prompting Ty to start yelling about how his sense of smell was far better than any squid's, prompting Teuthida to start an indignant rant about the obvious advantage of a squid's senses over any other creature's, prompting Ross to protest that narwhals bested squids and dragons with their senses, which led to a fight erupting before Sky's eyes.

Ty and Ross were loudly trading insults, fists balled up, while Teuthida hovered over their heads like a harpy, screeching insults until something hit home. Sky watched in horror. After a few minutes of this this, four things happened at once. Ross threw his hands in the air and banged his hand against the wall, Ty whacked himself in the back of the head with a wildly flailing wing, Teuthida accidentally rocketed up and banged her back against the rough stone wall, and Sky screamed "ARE YOU ALL SERIOUSLY FIGHTING OVER WHO HAS THE BEST SENSE OF SMELL!?"

Stunned into silence by their injuries and Sky's outburst, the three who were fighting stopped, calming down slightly. Sky took a deep breath. "Let's… let's just go. The sooner we find Barney the better, and you've all smelled his eyepatch." Unfortunately, everyone was still acting hostile towards each other when they got outside.

This time, Ross was the only one travelling by sea. Ty was flying, and Teuhida had decided to ride on his back. Sky was invited to ride on Ty too. Sky had almost gone with Ross, to keep him from getting lonely, but the spell that Ty used to give Sky the bubble fell apart upon contact with water, meaning Ty would have to redo it as soon as they were back on dry land, and Sky didn't want to spend a single moment on land without his bubble.

It wasn't even a matter of breathing. It was a matter of both pride and denial. One of the first things that Sky noticed after Ross found him was how _tiny_ he was as a squid. When he was human, he was slightly taller than Ross, but now, if Sky held himself upright with his tentacles, he was just below Ross's knees. When he was underwater or in his bubble, it didn't bother him as much, because he could just hover at eye level. When he couldn't do that, it made him feel as small as he actually was, which was hardly fun. Not to mention that his changed perspective when he was that small was annoying. When he was floating in his bubble at eye level and moving quickly, he could almost forget that he was a squid. Of course, the illusion broke easily, but he felt a lot better when the world didn't seem bigger than it used to be.

The swell of guilt rising in Sky for abandoning Ross vanished when Ty took off with a whoop of joy, rising into the air and flying out over the ocean. Flying was _amazing._ As Ty soared above the ocean, Sky leaned out as far as he dared, gazing out over the bluish-green expanse and searching for the flash of grey that meant Ross was along the same path. Teuthida was also cautiously peering out, to look at her home from above, but she was keeping a death grip on the short spines running along Ty's back.

Unfortunately, the excitement of flight soon wore off. Sky stared out at the unchanging ocean with unfocused eyes, the sun's heat beating down on him. Teuthida had apparently only come along to tell Ty "You're going the wrong way!" in a sing-song tone whenever he swerved from her ideal path , before realizing that he was only trying to avoid a rough spot of air, and then she would settle back down with a slightly disappointed "Oh." This had happened at least four times before Teuthida had finally shut up.

Sky thought that Teuthida looked apologetic, but was too proud to actually apologize to Ty, either for the fight in Barney's house or for constantly insisting that he was wrong. Sky was too tired to care really. He was half-asleep when Ty suddenly dipped in flight, jerking him awake. Ty was alternating between frantic flapping and struggling to glide, tossed around dangerously by the air. "What is up with these thermals!?" Ty screeched as he kept flailing about and trying to fly. "I'm going to have to dive down, swim the rest of the way!" Ty yelled over his shoulder.

"No way!" Teuthida said, wide eyed and clinging desperately to Ty. "We're almost there! The scent is coming from the island!" Ty turned his head back to the ocean, and Sky followed his gaze. There was a island a short distance away. There was a thin, sandy beach, but most of the island on this side of the island was coated in a thick rainforest. "We can make it if we try, right?" Teuthida asked, seeming desperate. Ty nodded.

"If I try to dive at an angle… all right, you might want to hold on for this!" Right after Ty said that, he put on a burst of speed, eyes locked onto the shore. Teuthida flattened herself against Ty's back, and Sky followed her lead, partially closing his eyes against the stinging wind. Just before they hit the beach, Ty snapped his wings open and sort of scooped the air to fling himself upright, landing on the sand in a suitably dramatic way. Seconds later, Ross hauled himself onto the beach.

Sky carefully floated away from Ty, still shaking a bit, and Teuthida followed. Now, they were all standing on the beach, looking at the rainforest that they would have to get through to find Barney. The rainforest looked very thick and unwelcoming, and everybody instinctively shrank away from it a bit.

Ross threw his hands up, yelled "For Barney!" and charged into the rainforest before anybody could hold him back, disappearing into the flora. Sky sighed. "At least one of us is excited." he said with a nervous chuckle. Silence.

"We should go find him." Teuthida said abruptly. "Agreed." Ty added. With that, they all bolted into the rainforest, calling for Ross to wait for them as the forest swallowed them.


	8. Preview and reboot!

**So, as you may have noticed if you've been following this story for a while, I haven't updated in ages. It's because I have no idea where the plot was going with the original. So, I'm writing a new, revised version of the story, with a more clear plot, better characterization, more consistency, fewer errors, and just better quality in general. I'm really excited to share it with all you guys, but I'm really busy. Trust me, I'm writing as fast as I can while still trying to make it good! I'd give it a month or two, if all goes well. I know that's a long time to wait, so, I decided to give you a little preview of a chapter to come!**

 **...**

 **Of course, when I saw "preview" I mean preview and some self-indulgent transformation horror. Had to edit it to give you something of substance.**

Squids. There were squids _everywhere_.

Sky ran along a long hallway, glancing out of the massive windows at the squid-infested streets below. How had the squids gotten this far inland? Whenever Sky helped plan a Sky Army base, he made sure that it was safely inland, or at least far from saltwater. He knew that since squid were saltwater animals, freshwater could be fatal to them if they stayed in it too long. Not within a few minutes, within a few hours, but it was still a short amount of time.

So, of course, it was assumed that freshwater was safe to build by. And putting fountains all over the place was fine too. Nobody expected the squids to come charging in with bags of salt and determination. The squids had survived the trip up the river, and had poured salt into the fountains to make the water salty enough to mimic seawater. Every so often, Sky would see a squid climb into a fountain and leap back out again.

Every general in the Sky Army had been given orders. Ty was going to the End to get EXP from defeating the dragon so that he could enchant more weapons for the counterattack. Ross was being kept safely inside for now, so that he could help find anyone missing after the battle. Everyone else was going to fight the squids directly, including Sky. Normally, Sky could be brave. He could take up his sword without a moment's hesitation, even joke about the oncoming danger. But normally, there was a respawn field.

Respawn fields were what allowed a player to respawn after dying. They were a huge advantage for the Sky Army. The ability to respawn meant that Sky Army recruits could live to fight another day, but respawn fields wouldn't work for squids. Well… they wouldn't work for most squids. Some mobs (including squids) would occasionally be able to respawn naturally without the use of respawn fields. There has never been a human able to do this. Fortunately, it's very rare for a squid to naturally respawn, and they aren't a huge concern.

Respawn fields occurred naturally in survival worlds and severs, but artificially creating one was an exhausting task that consumed both the materials and energy of anybody who tried to set one up. As a result and general rule, respawn fields were only set up at battlefields and other dangerous areas. Of course, this base was considered perfectly safe, just a nice place to live, train, and store weapons and armor. Why would anyone bother to set up a respawn field here, when one would be better suited somewhere else?

And now, for the first time since the war against the Squid Army started, Sky and his recruits were in actual danger, and Sky couldn't shake the feeling that it was his fault. _Nobody could have guessed this would happen,_ he thought. _If anybody dies tonight, the squids are the only ones to blame._ Before Sky left the room where he had given his orders, he looked back to take in his possible last sight of his friends. Red was trying to keep BlueVacktor in check, knowing that under these circumstances it would be nearly impossible to go back to his normal self, Barney was adjusting his eyepatch with a mixture of nervousness and determination, and Ross and Max were embracing each other as if it would kill them to let go.

Now, Sky was nearing the end of the hallway. He thought _If I survive this battle, I will never assume everything is safe_ , and then he flung open the door and plunged into the chaos.

* * *

As Sky ran towards his friends, their cheerful faces began to morph into expressions of disgust and horror. Sky slowed, confused by this reaction, and as he did, he caught sight of his left arm. Something was very, very wrong with his arm. It was splitting in half, the wound being healed with blue flesh that quickly overtook the rest of his arm. While this was happening, Sky's arm started to move, detaching itself from his shoulder and travelling down his body. As Sky stared, he realized that his arm was starting to look less like an arm and more like… "Tentacles." Sky said under his breath, horrified.

As Sky said that, he realized that his other arm was splitting apart, transforming to match his left side, and the ground was starting to rush up at him. The ground rushed towards him even faster when Sky suddenly fell over. A quick glance confirmed that this was because Sky's legs were turning into tentacles too. "No, no, no, this can't be happening." Sky muttered in quiet panic, his mouth suddenly disappearing, the place where it used to be covered in blue, slightly moist skin that started to spread with a cold, itchy feeling that made Sky want to tear his own face off. Sky's mouth reformed in the ring of tentacles that now made up Sky's lower half as his body was pushed and pulled by some unknown force, tearing his humanity away. Sky could feel his organs shifting, bones disappearing into nothing, every cell in his body rearranging to fit his unwanted new form.

When the transformation was finished, Sky looked up at his friends desperately. They had all seen the transformation, they knew it was Sky who was huddled fearfully in front of them. The question was, what were they going to do now? Slowly, one by one, like something out of a horror film, they drew their swords and advanced.


End file.
